The imperial stout strikes back this weekend as The Beerwalk returns with another installment of May the Fourth Beer With You. This marks the first time the Star Wars-themed beer and food event comes to Japantown. More than a dozen breweries will be pouring at storefronts up and down Taylor and Jackson streets. It’s enough craft beer to make a wookie tipsy. Tickets get you tastings, a custom glass and a brew passport. Kids, dogs and designated drivers get in for free. The event benefits the Japantown Business Association and the Bay Area Brewers Guild.

Star Wars Beerwalk
Sat, 2pm, $35+
Japantown, San Jose

Summer is right around the corner, and the Gordon Biersch Brewery complex in Japantown will once again host this weekly pileup of food trucks, beer and local makers. Co-hosted by Moveable Feast, the event is every Thursday night through August and features live music, games for the kids and SJMADE vendors. Admission is free; just bring good vibes and cash. More info at sanjosemade.com.

Taylor Street Night + Market
Thu, 5pm, Free
Gordon Biersch Brewing Co., Japantown

According to the Japanese Buddhist tradition, this early summer festival marks the return of spirits from the grave, as families welcome departed ancestors into their homes for a few days. Despite the holiday’s somber associations, the Obon festival is a time for family reunion and celebratory song and dance. Head to one of the three remaining Japantowns in the U.S. to see over 1,200 dancers in colorful, festive garb synchronize in the summer sun. Game booths, food booths and taiko performances top off this rich cultural experience that comes only one a year.

Obon Festival
Sat, 11am, Free
Buddhist Church Betsuin, San Jose

The long running Bay Area radio station KFJC is bringing its celebrated record swap back to Empire Seven Studios for its second year of a reimagined tradition.

Since its founding in 1959, KFJC has played an integral part in the underground but vibrant Bay Area music scene. Broadcasting from the Foothill College Campus at 89.7 FM, the station has a lengthy tradition of championing boundary-pushing acts, as well as serving as a tastemaking curator for the region.

In addition to helping propel many bands to stardom, KFJC has held an annual record swap on campus for nearly two decades. Last year, in a major shift, the swap was moved to Empire Seven Studios in Japantown, San Jose. This year, it returns to Empire Seven, with the aim of becoming a permanent fixture there.

“It has been a staple in the bay area for many years, and bringing it back is always a good thing, says Leticia Domingo, a current on-air KFJC DJ and former publicist for the station.

This won’t be a flea market affair. Empire Seven Studios, with art on the walls and DJs spinning all day, works to make the swap less of a bartering market and more of a musical learning experience.

“When I first joined the station in 2001-2002, one of the first events I ever went to was a record swap,” says Domingo, better known by her on-air name Ms. Tiza. “It was mostly record labels, and it was a paid event, with early bird specials.”

Seeing the formula as outdated and unfair to newer collectors, Domingo and the station reinvented the record swap—freeing it from the confines of the Foothill Campus and, more important, making it a free event. The idea was to encourage everyone, from the serious veteran collector to the merely curious, to intermingle and learn.

It’s a welcome change. While the swap has been a staple of the Bay Area music scene for decades, the insider vibe meant the event mainly drew an insider crowd. Domingo has stripped away most of that snobbery in order to let the love of music rule. “Now the great thing is you have collectors selling and collectors digging together,” she says.

KFJC Record Swap
Apr 2, 10am-5pm, Free
Empire Seven Studios, San Jose

“What I’m saying is we get ‘Super Freak’ in there and get the audience clapping,” says Dominic “Goldenchyld” Cueto as he cues up the familiar bass line at a rehearsal. It loops as members of San Jose Taiko nod their heads and rearrange themselves, heaving their big drums into the next configuration.

Cueto and Aaron “Squareweezy” Aquino of the Bangerz DJ collective sit behind laptops, turntables and tangles of wires in San Jose Taiko’s warehouse practice space, facing the drummers. Taiko’s artistic director, Franco Imperial, directs the performers and at times jumps in himself as the two groups iron out the wrinkles for their upcoming collaborative show at the Montgomery Theater on June 15.

Anyone who caught their first show together at the 2010 SubZERO festival knows what to expect. Even the YouTube video communicates the intense energy the two groups bring to the stage: the six members of the Bangerz rocking to the beat as they twist knobs and tap pads, San Jose Taiko in front of them thudding their drums in precise choreography. Everything stops. Then the beat drops, and the crowd goes nuts.

“In 2010, that was the big surprise because we didn’t know how audiences would react to it,” Imperial says. “I knew it was going to be awesome, but the audience reaction was just overwhelming. We were supposed to be kind of stoic [and] straight-faced, but then just this wave of energy came from the audience. It just touches something on a very primal level.”

Cueto follows up: “A DJ is solely playing music through speakers, and when you hear that you become very used to it. And now, when you add taiko and that live element, you’re listening in 3D almost. There’s an element of power that goes beyond what’s coming out of the speakers.”

The easy hook to reach for is the traditional Japanese drumming contrasted with the high-tech electronic production, the simplicity of the big drums and sticks juxtaposed with the bird’s nest of wires and electronics, but the story is more complicated than that and the contrast not as pronounced as it might first appear.

While taiko has been around in Japan in one form or another for thousands of years, the familiar ensemble style of taiko, called kumi daiko, actually originated relatively recently. In 1951, a Japanese jazz drummer named Daihachi Oguchi began to bring groups of drummers together to play, rather than the usual single drummer.

The new style was imported to the United States, and in 1968 the first organized group made its debut in San Francisco. By 1973, San Jose Taiko was founded in Japantown, making it the third-oldest American taiko group.

When San Jose Taiko first hinted at another collaboration with the Bangerz, Imperial says the idea received varied reactions. “The younger generation said we’re totally gonna be there,” he says, but some of the older audience members were skeptical and more attracted to the “classics” of San Jose Taiko.

Pigeonholing the group as staid, though, can be misleading. When the ensemble was founded by Roy Hirabayashi, he never intended to remain exclusively traditional without pushing the art forward, Imperial says.

“They were looking for a way to use taiko to express themselves as Asian Americans,” Imperial says. “That’s why the early music for us has influences of swing, jazz and R&B.”

Imperial says he still has older audience members who ask for “pure taiko,” but that is something that must be defined. “This is more San Jose Taiko than anything,” he says.

The Bangerz experience a similar struggle with categorization. With six DJs and producers all bringing different influences to the table, their songs easily become a eclectic mix of hip-hop and various electronic-music genres. But with this difficulty of categorization comes a certain freedom and the ability to try projects like the new one they are working on with San Jose Taiko.

Aquino likes to describe the two groups’ mix of styles as “chocolate and peanut butter” and, watching them perform, the comparison makes sense. Each group has a distinct sound and style—the swagger of the DJs, the controlled seriousness of the drummers—but they complement each other perfectly.

For one song in the new show, the taiko drummers start out with a row of bells, weaving quick rhythms between the high and low tones over cymbals and thumping drums. They fade it down, bring it back up, then the Bangerz drop a snare on the backbeat, and it all clicks naturally.
“[San Jose Taiko listens] to our tracks, and sometimes they hear things that we didn’t even realize were in them,” Cueto says. “They hear certain things in the music that we didn’t, but we understand how they could come up with that.”

Although the performance on June 15 is sold out, San Jose Taiko and the Bangerz say a tour of California could be in the works.

Japantown hosted another successful round of SJ Beerwalk on Saturday, this time putting an emphasis on IPA suds. Metro photographer Aron Cooperman was there, camera in hand.

The Japantown Beer Walk sold out early on Saturday, signaling a success for organizers and leaving many people who showed up hoping to purchase tickets on site crying in their beer somewhere else.

Everyone was on their best behavior and sunshine was plentiful during event, featuring California craft-brews and Japanese classics. With 500 people in attendance, the streets of Japantown looked uncommonly busy that Saturday afternoon. Hopefully, the Beer Walk introduced some new folks to the area and crowds will become a regular thing.

Jack’s Bar served as the staging point for the event. ID’s were checked at the door and glasses and maps of participating businesses were given out on the back patio. Upon visiting all the shops offering beers and getting their maps stamped, attendees could enter a raffle. It was like a leisurely Easter egg hunt with delicious beer on every corner.

Venues that hosted the event included a variety of Japantown businesses. From retail locations like Biscuits, Chole’s Closet and Cukui, to Classic Rock (a local jeweler), and Empire 7 Studios (an art gallery).

If you were one of the many who tried fruitlessly to get a ticket the day of the event, don’t fret. Organizers say another Japantown Beer Walk is in the works and tentatively scheduled for this spring.

View the complete gallery.

Fifteen breweries will present seasonal offerings, along with classic beers from Japan, at the first Japantown Beer Walk is this Saturday, February 11^th.

The Japantown Beer Walk is the brainchild of Jack’s Bar owner Jordan Trigg and his events coordinator Charlie Mann, the Beer Walk grew out of Win Walk and it’s similar to Japantown‘s annual Sake San Jose. With the help and blessing of Kathy Sakamoto of the Japantown Business Association, Jordan and Charlie were able to secure venues that showcase the energy of the district.

Participating businesses include Jack’s Bar, Kaizen Salon, Santo Market, Nichi Bei Bussan, Ukulele Jams (on 5th St), Sak n’ Sak, Orange Crush Studios, Art Object Gallery, Biscuits, Cukui, Headliners, Aristocrats, Chloe’s Closet, Sole on Ice, The Classic Rock Jewelry Store, and Empire Studios, participants will be able to burn off some of those beer calories while strolling around Japantown.

Tickets are available through Dishcrawl for $29.